H Lunn¹, C Johnston², R Flavel²
¹Royal Blind Society, Child and Family Services, Sydney, Australia; ²University of Sydney, Family and Community Nursing, Sydney, Australia
Background
The disability field has moved in recent years to the realization that, if intervention is to be successful, the individual cannot be seen in isolation (Dunst, Trivette & Deal, 1988;
Hanson & Lynch, 1995). Successful training programmes will take account not only of the characteristics of the individuals but also of their families, the communities in which
they live and the resources and support systems available to them. To achieve this, however, a sound and tested approach is needed. The ecocultural paradigm, derived from
Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological theory, provides just such a research framework.
Method
Ecocultural theory looks explicitly at the meanings families give to their experience and analyses the daily routines that are created by environmental and cultural forces through
the use of tailored interviews (Bernheimer, Gallimore & Weisner, 1990). It has been extensively utilised to identify the accommodations which families and individuals make to
deal with disability (Gallimore, Bernheimer & Weisner, 1999; Weisner, Matheson & Bernheimer, 1996). This approach was used in the Vision and Living Skills Project, a
collaborative study undertaken by Royal Blind Society and The University of Sydney, Australia which aimed to determine the impact of vision impairment on the development of
daily living skills in children and adolescents and the implications for service delivery.
Results
The ecocultural interview proved to be a useful tool in establishing critical characteristics, client and family needs and consequent avenues for intervention. By placing the data
within the ecocultural paradigm clear implications for intervention of relevance to individual clients and families could be determined.
Conclusion
The ecocultural paradigm (and the interview format which flows from it) are not only powerful techniques for research but, just as importantly, for intervention..
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